Hitherto, a heater, a wafer prober and the like wherein a base material made of metal such as stainless steel or aluminum alloy is used has been used as a semiconductor producing/examining device and the like, examples of which include an etching device and a chemical vapor deposition device.
However, a heater made of metal has a thick heater plate; therefore, the heater has such problems that the heater has a large weight and is bulky. Furthermore, these problems result in a problem about its temperature following property.
Thus, JP Kokai Hei 11-40330 and so on disclose a ceramic heater for a semiconductor producing/examining device wherein a nitride ceramic or a carbide ceramic, which has a high heat conductivity and a large intensity, is used as a substrate and heating elements formed by sintering metal particles are set up on the surface of a plate made of such a ceramic (ceramic substrate).
Examples of the method of forming the resistance heating elements when such a ceramic heater for a semiconductor producing/examining device is manufactured include the following methods.
A ceramic substrate having a given shape is firstly manufactured. In the case that resistance heating elements are formed by coating method after manufacturing the ceramic substrate, a conductor containing paste layer having a heating element pattern is formed on the surface of this ceramic substrate by such a method as screen printing and then the paste layer is heated and fired, thereby forming the resistance heating elements.
In the case that resistance heating elements are formed by a plating method or a physical vapor deposition method such as sputtering, a metal layer is formed on a given area in a ceramic substrate by the above-mentioned method and subsequently the resistance heating elements having a given pattern are formed by making an etching resist to cover a heating element pattern portion and then conducting an etching treatment.
Resistance heating elements having a given resistance heating element pattern can also be formed on the surface of a ceramic substrate, through one processing, by covering portions other than the heating element pattern with resin and the like firstly and then conducting above-mentioned treatment.